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A day after Steve Spurrier's resignation left Washington in search of its fifth head coach in five years, Redskins officials are preparing to hit the road and start the interview process.
Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and vice president of football operations Vinny Cerrato flew on Wednesday night to California, where they will interview two of the top three candidates on their list: ex-Giants head coach Jim Fassel on Thursday and former Minnesota head coach Dennis Green on Friday.
Both of the Redskins' coaching interviews will take place in the Bay area, because Fassel is there to watch his son's Boston College team play Colorado State in Wednesday night's San Francisco Bowl, and Green lives in the San Diego area and will fly north for an interview. The Redskins' third known candidate, Seattle defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes, has declined a request to interview until the Seahawks are eliminated from the playoffs.
Fassel on Saturday is scheduled to interview in Arizona for the Cardinals' vacant head coaching job. Green, who interviewed with Arizona on Wednesday, was contacted by Snyder on Tuesday night, and the two already have talked several times by phone.
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In addition to looking for a new head coach, league sources say the Redskins
may be contemplating the possibility of adding Oakland senior assistant Bruce
Allen to their front office, likely as team president. Allen, the son of Hall
of Fame ex-Redskins head coach George Allen, is said to have grown frustrated
with the turmoil that besets the Raiders organization these days, and would
welcome a change of scenery.
Allen and Snyder have formed a strong friendship in recent years and are intrigued by the idea of working together. Two years ago, Snyder considered making a run at Allen when the Redskins were in the market for a general manager, but serious talks never materialized.
Allen, of course, is also in the Bay area, and could be contacted by Washington officials this weekend, although the Redskins' coaching search is believed to the team's first priority.
Green and Fassel could wind up competing with each other for as many as three of the NFL's seven head-coaching openings: Arizona, Washington and Oakland. Green interviewed with the Cardinals in Arizona on Wednesday, and Fassel is scheduled to meet with the Cardinals on Saturday. Both men also are on the Raiders' radar screen, although Oakland's history is for owner Al Davis to instead hire someone with no previous head-coaching experience.
With his knowledge of the NFC East, Fassel appears to be in the strongest position in Washington, although Rhodes can not be overlooked since he served as the Redskins defensive coordinator in 2000 and is well-respected by Snyder for his tough, disciplinarian style of coaching. The Redskins in the two-year Spurrier era were an undisciplined bunch, and Snyder is eager to address that problem with his next coaching hire.
Though the Redskins have yet to schedule an interview with any second-tier candidate, someone who could find their way onto that list is 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora Jr., who interviewed for Atlanta's head coaching job on Tuesday and has been asked to meet with Chicago general manager Jerry Angelo early next week about the Bears' vacancy.
For now, however, Washington officials are focusing foremost on candidates with previous NFL head-coaching experience, believing that path is the quickest way to end the team's four-year playoff drought. In Green and Fassel, the Redskins are starting with a pair of candidates who have combined to make 11 playoff trips in their 17 seasons as NFL head coaches. Green made eight of those playoff appearances in his 10 seasons in Minnesota (1992-2001).
"Nobody would walk in there and instantly restore credibility to their program faster than Denny Green,'' said Ravens head coach Brian Billick on Wednesday, of his former boss in Minnesota. "I would imagine he'd be a very attractive candidate for where Washington is right now.''
Both Fassel and Green are very interested in the Redskins job, but both are thought to be at least somewhat wary of Cerrato's role in the front office. Under Spurrier, Cerrato's say on personnel issues was equal to that of the head coach, with ties being broken by Snyder. Green and Fassel are likely to seek assurances of more direct control of the personnel decision making process, at least if the Redskins have no experienced general manager in place.
"The issue of how much personnel authority Vinny has must be dealt with in some way by Snyder if they're going to get the kind of experienced NFL head coach who can turn that situation around in Washington,'' said one league source, with deep knowledge of the Redskins' situation. "That's the first thing an experienced coaching candidate is going to want to know, 'How are things going to be different than the situation that has existed the past two years?' ''
• Chicago on Tuesday requested permission to interview both Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Nolan and 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora for its head coaching vacancy. The Ravens, who play host to Tennessee on Saturday in a first-round AFC playoff game, will make time for Nolan to interview with Angelo early next week, probably on Monday or Tuesday.
Mora also will interview with Angelo early next week. Mora plans to speak with Angelo on Friday to determine when he'll travel to Chicago for the interview. The Bears this week began their search by scheduling interviews with two other highly sought after candidates who are defensive coordinators: the Rams' Lovie Smith and the Patriots' Romeo Crennel.
• Oakland's coaching search is in its nascent stages, and no clear-cut favorite has emerged. In addition to Green and Fassel being potential candidates, others who might be interviewed by the Raiders include Dallas offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon and Dallas quarterbacks coach Sean Payton. Both come highly recommended by Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells, whose opinion carries considerable weight to Raiders owner Al Davis.
Some observers, however, feel that Davis will be more willing to hire an experienced head coach like Green or Fassel, given the debacle that this season turned into under second-year head coach Bill Callahan, who had never been a head coach before being hired in 2002.
• Buffalo on Thursday became the third team to interview the Rams' Smith. The St. Louis defensive coordinator interviewed with the Falcons on Monday night and the Giants on Tuesday. On Friday, he'll conclude his week of interviews by meeting with Bears officials in St. Louis.
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